Fireballs and Counterspells: A Mage's Beginning
by KamiofMany91
Summary: What if the power he knows not is actually magic that's very rare, but known to a good number of muggles? H/Hr Magic the Gathering Xover. Rateing is due to uncertainy of chapters to come


AN: This is something I thought would be interesting. The prophecy states that Harry would have a power that Voldemort, or Dumbledore in some interpretations, would know not of, so I figured why would he know of what everyone, including wizards, thought was a muggle card game?

Chapter 1: A Sudden Want

It was turning out to be an ordinary day for Harry Potter. He cousin and his friends bullied him and some other kids, he was called in due to his poor grades, and nobody really looked at Harry close enough to notice the bruising around his neck where Uncle Vernon had choked him the night before. Harry was withdrawing into himself when he noticed some money on the ground.

He was always getting his Cousin Dudley's hand-me-downs and never thought he could get lucky enough for a 20 pound bill to just lie in the street, but it was there and not a soul noticed when he picked it up. He went to a game shop that he knew was close enough to his aunt's home that he could pick something up and his relatives would not notice anything unusual about his arrival time from school.

"Welcome to Excalibur Games. Can I help you with something," ask the man behind the counter, hoping the boy would leave quickly. The man had little patience for elementary school kids but he could deal with them if needed. He noticed some bruises on the boy as well as the lightning shaped scar on his head. The kid looked like he could collapse at any moment. The boy looked around and suddenly pointed at a shelf of Magic: The Gathering decks, asking to look at them.

Harry asked the guy to look at the decks on the shelf. They all had the word magic on them. He felt something drawing him to the box with an old man on it. He asked for it and a few booster packs he felt drawn to as well. He paid the man and went home. He went home and the boy fixed dinner, as was normal. What wasn't normal was the doorbell ringing and child services being at the door, looking for Harry. Vernon tried to get them to leave but, due to the nature of the call, they had to search the house just to be sure. When they came to the kitchen, where everyone was having dinner, the woman in charge of the search saw Harry and asked him to show her his room, Petunia tried to stop him, but the lady, A Ms. Bones, insisted that Harry show her his room, and when she saw the state of the cupboard, she was appalled at the way things were. She asked Harry why his room was like it was and he told her about his normal punishments, earning glares from his relatives and looks of sympathy from the rescuers. Ms. Bones told Harry that she was going to take him to her house and that she would take care of him.

A few months later, Harry and his new mom were eating breakfast when an owl of all things pecked at the window. Harry opened the window to take the bird in when he noticed a letter on its leg. When he took the letter off, he saw that it was addressed to his bedroom, very creepily. It told him that he was a wizard and to expect a visitor from the school to explain what that meant to his family. The next day, a dumpy looking witch, introducing herself as Professor Sprout, told Harry and Peggy Bones that Harry was going to one of the greatest and oldest wizarding schools in the world, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She explained some of the courses and that Harry was famous in the wizarding world. She agreed to help get Harry his school supplies and they went off to Diagon Ally.

On the way, they stopped by a card shop and Harry got a new deck for Magic. It was from a new set that had come out a week ago called Eventide. He bought this red/blue deck that called to something inside him. After that stop, they headed straight to Diagon Ally and Gringotts. There Harry withdrew what he needed for school supplies and a few other things. Professor Sprout took Harry to get robes, books, a cauldron, potion supplies, telescope, gloves, a gardening kit (a birthday gift from Professor Sprout), an owl he named Hedwig (a birthday gift from his mom). The last stop of the day was the wand shop Olivander's.

The shop owner looked happy to see Harry and started looking for wands a few minutes after getting some measurements. After a minute Mr. Olivander brought out two wands, the last two in the shop that he hadn't tried yet. One was made of a magical white elm tree called a blanch wood, with a drake scale core. It was about 9 and half inches long. The other was an 11" holy wand with a phoenix feather core. Harry was told to hold both to see which one chose him. As soon as he did, both wands reacted with powerful blasts of air and a red/blue aura surrounding him. Harry felt something flowing inside of him, like he was connecting a giant invisible circuit. After he bought both wands, as the owner said that both wands had chosen him, and kept muttering something under his breath about rarities and legends.

Professor Sprout left in the Leaky Cauldron after telling Harry how to get to Platform 9 and ¾. When they got home, Harry passed out from strain as soon as he stepped in the door. His mother was worried sick and had no idea what was happening to her son. She wrote a frantic letter to "that Sprout lady" while taking her son the ER. After hours of waiting they told her that her son had arrhythmia and couldn't figure out what the cause of it was. They also said her son was showing an insane amount of brain activity. A few minutes later Peggy was told that her son was being transferred to a new hospital and that she had to go with him. A group appeared next to an ambulance and told her that Harry was being transferred to St. Mungo's. When they got there, Harry had a normal heart beat, but his brain was still full of activity. Ms. Bones was worried what was happening to her poor Harry.

Things in Harry's mind were going better than in the real world. Harry woke up in a castle. He could tell that this was not right, as he still had a week to depart to Hogwarts. As he wondered through the castle, he worried why the castle was empty. Soon he found a door that was labeled "Memory". Across from it was a similar door labeled "Fantasy". 'Bloody hell', Harry thought,' What have I gotten myself into here.' He then noticed two small weights on his sides, which he saw were his wands. As he drew them, he noticed that there were things carved in to the masonry of the castle. What's more is that he actually recognized the symbols carved everywhere. He saw a water drop and a fireball every two to four inches. As he made his way to the entrance of the castle, he saw a door that was colored a combination of sickly green and black. He let the door be for now as it looked dangerous. Harry stepped out of the structure to see a lush forest surrounding him. He searched for an exit and noticed someone following him. When he stopped, his tail stopped as well. Deciding to see how far his stalker would follow him, Harry continued to search for the exit, only to find a beach with many rivers flowing into the body of water as he analyzed what he was looking at.

'I never heard of a beachfront forest with a castle' Harry thought, 'but somehow I don't think this is a place in the real world.' As soon as he thought this, his stalker came up behind him, turning him to reveal a drake that had purple tinge to it. "Welcome to your mind, young mage," said the drake in a calm but firm voice. "I am what many would consider a familiar; I am one of two voices to your servants, as the creatures you can summon will be. You have much to prove to those from the mountains, but I, as well as one other, am here to help you begin awakening your powers," The violet dragon-kin said to the small and still recovering boy.

"Thank you, sir, but what do you mean by powers? I know that I am a wizard, but I thought I was going to school to learn about that," Harry asks the creature, to which the creature snorted. "You are no mere wizard, but a mage, a person with the ability to use manna. A side effect of the magic that comes from your parents mixing with manna caused this comma you're in and unlocked certain abilities that reflect the manna that you can naturally tap into. You can manipulate two elements, fire and air, as well as read thoughts and emotions. Now, get on my back. I will take you to your other instructor."

After what seemed like a month to Harry, He woke up with his mother next to him. "How long was I out," Harry asked, hoping he didn't miss the train to Hogwarts. He was informed that it had been two days and that the train would be leaving tomorrow.

AN: Any fan of Magic will probably point out that according to the official timeline of Harry Potter, Magic hasn't even been created yet, but I claim artistic license so move the date of Magic invention back about 17 years. If you're wondering why 17 years, Eventide came out July 25, 2008, but Harry starts Hogwarts in 1991. So I'm sliding the Magic release dates back to match up with Harry's timeline, mean MTG was probably created by a flower child in 1976. As to what decks Harry uses, He's using deck I've actually played with and enjoyed. I was originally going to have Harry a blue/green mage, but a friend of mine kindly pointed out that Harry would actually play closer to red, which I'll admit isn't a color I'm good with. I'll announce that one of Harry's friends will also become a mage, but not who just yet.

Edit 9/7- I had an interesting idea, I'm adding another of Harry's friends, to the mage mix, but it's not anyone you would imagine.


End file.
